25 June 1998: Foundation of the Aldous Huxley Society in Münster
From a report by Bernfried Nugel in Anglistik: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Anglistenverbandes, 10.2 (1999), 133-135: "Aldous Huxley in Münster: The Foundation of the Aldous Huxley Society and the Centre for Aldous Huxley Studies":
"After the Aldous Huxley Centenary Symposium, which I organized at the University of Münster in 1994, many participants encouraged me to found an international society devoted to the study and promotion of the thought and writings of Aldous Huxley. However, I was convinced from the start that such a venture would require a solid basis in the form of an institute or research centre which could function as a vehicle for the activities of the society. Once the Department of English, the Faculty of Philology (Fachbereich 9) and the Rektor of the University of Münster had pledged their support for the Centre for Aldous Huxley Studies , which I gratefully acknowledge here, the foundation of the Aldous Huxley Society could be scheduled for 25 June 1998. Prof.Dr. Lothar Fietz (University of Tübingen), a leading German Huxley expert, kindly agreed to give the inaugural lecture on a characteristically Huxleyan subject: "Mythos,Geschichte und Utopie: Ideologie und Ideologienkritik im Werk Aldous Huxleys" (Myth, History and Utopia: Ideology and Critique of Ideologies in the Works of Aldous Huxley). In a compelling systematic survey of ideological interpretations of myth, history and utopia he discussed changes and recurrences in Huxley's critical assumptions as reflected in his novels and essays from the twenties to the sixties, thus opening up new avenues of research for Huxley criticism. The lecture and the subsequent founders' meeting were attended by about sixty participants, among them the doyen of the Department of English, Prof. Dr. Edgar Mertner , and the Dean of the Faculty of Philology, Prof. Dr. Volker Honemann , as well as Prof. Peter Firchow (University of Minnesota), Dr. James Hull (Zürich) and Prof. Dr. Gerd Rohmann (University of Kassel) as distinguished foreign and non-resident guests. At the beginning of the founders' meeting various addresses from abroad were read out; Mrs. Laura Huxley , widow of Aldous Huxley and Honorary President of the Aldous Huxley Society , had even sent a recorded message, which was played to the audience. The meeting then passed the by-laws and elected the Executive Committee as well as the Board of Curators. Finally, the inauguration of the Aldous Huxley Society was rounded off with a reception sponsored by the British Council, Köln, the Buchhandlung Poertgen-Herder, Münster, and the LIT Verlag, Münster. On the whole, the foundation of the Aldous Huxley Society was a promising event, which was widely publicized on the radio and in German and foreign newspapers."
8-10 June 1999: Prof. Kirpal Singh (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) in Münster, with the following programme:
8 June 1999: (Department of English, room H 19)
9:15-10:45 a.m.: lecture on "BRAVE NEW WORLDS: Aldous Huxley and the Challenges of Globalisation"
2:15-3:45 p.m.: seminar on "Aldous Huxley and Southeast Asia" (Aldous Huxley's views on Southeast Asia and the reception of his works) (room 032)
4:15-5:45 p.m.: seminar continued as "Creative Writing in Southeast Asia" (Aldous Huxley and western literature in general as a challenge to writers in Southeast Asia) (room 032)
10 June 1999: (Department of English, room H 19)
8:00-10:00 p.m.: Kirpal Singh reading from his own works (Singaporean and other Southeast Asian literature in English).
26-29 June 2000: Official Inauguration of the Centre for Aldous Huxley Studies (CAHS) , Department of English, University of Münster: Prof. Jerome Meckier (University of Kentucky); Prof. Sanford Marovitz (Kent State University, Ohio); Dr. Willi Real (University of Münster); Prof. Dr. Bernfried Nugel (University of Münster), with the following programme:
26 June 2000:
4:15-6:00 p.m.: Professor Jerome Meckier, workshop on "Aldous Huxley and the Utopian Tradition: Brave New World and Island "
27 June 2000:
9:15-10.45 a.m.: Professor Jerome Meckier, lecture on "The Brave New World Typescript"
11.15-12.45 a.m.: Professor Bernfried Nugel, lecture on "How Reliable are the Current Huxley Texts? - Toward a Critical Edition of the Works of Aldous Huxley"
2:15-3:45 p.m.: Dr. Willi Real, didactic workshop on " Brave New World and Island : A New Course Plan"
29 June 2000:
9:15-10:45 a.m.: Professor Sanford Marovitz, lecture on "Aldous Huxley's View of Nationalism"
4:15-5:00 p.m.: Professor Jerome Meckier, lecture on "Aldous Huxley's American Experience"
5:15: inauguration of the CAHS , followed by a reception
December 2000: The Aldous Huxley Society and Professor Kirpal Singh (The Centre for Cross-Cultutral Studies, Singapore Management University) are happy to announce the Aldous Huxley Symposium in Singapore, 28 December 2000 - 01 January 2001: "Brave New Worlds: Aldous Huxley and the Challenges of the Third Millennium".
Programme Overview:
29 December 2000
Section A
Chair: Professor Peter Firchow (University of Minnesota)
9.30 - 10.30 Keynote Address: Professor Jerome Meckier (University of Kentucky): "Aldous Huxley's Americanization of the Brave New World Typescript"
10.30 - 11.00 tea/coffee break
11.00 - 11.45 Professor George Watt (Nagoya University, Japan): "Huxley in the Early Vogue "
11.45 - 12.30 Professor Gerd Rohmann (University of Kassel): "Aldous Huxley's Early Journalism"
Section B
9.30 - 11.00 see Section A
Chair: Dr. Janet Wilson (New Zealand/U.K.)
11.00 - 11.45 Professor James Sexton (Camosun College, Victoria, B.C.): "Aldous Huxley's Lecture on 'Utopias Positive and Negative' (1963)"
11.45 - 12.30 Professor Bernhardt Trout (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): "Revisiting Huxley: Modern Science and the Hope for Tomorrow"
12.30 - 14.00 lunch break
Section A
Chair: Professor Gerd Rohmann (University of Kassel)
14.00 - 14.45 Dr. Laili Dor (University of Le Mans): "Huxley and Women's Education"
14.45 - 15.30 Dr. Ronald Ng (Singapore): "The New Millennium - Dawn of the Brave New World?"
15.30 - 16.00 tea/coffee break
Chair: Professor Bernhardt Trout (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
16.00 - 16.45 Ted Skewes (Adelaide, Australia): "A Whole Brave New World: The Farm Stay as Education"
16.45 - 17.30 Dr. Sabine Menninghaus (University of Münster): "Toward a New Paradigm of Literature: Atoms, Quanta and Relativity in Huxley's Analogical Mode of Thinking"
Section B
Chair: Professor Jerome Meckier (University of Kentucky)
16.00 - 16.45 See-Toh Wei-Min (National University of Singapore): "Aldous Huxley and the End of History: Brave New World as Ideological Critique"
16.45 - 17.30 Katja Reinecke (University of Münster): "Total Globalisation or Global Totalitarianism? - Huxley's Pareto-Based Criticism of the Social Aspects of the Managerial Revolution"
30 December 2000
Section A
Chair: Professor David Birch (Deakin University, Australia)
9.00 - 9.45 Professor Frank Smith (Laurentian University, Canada): "Pharmacological Manipulation in Brave New World : A Modern-Day Chemist's Perspective"
9.45 - 10.30 Professor Wladek Stankiewicz (University of British Columbia): "Aldous Huxley, Our Contemporary: A Political Theorist's View" (read by Professor Ian Ross)
10.30 - 11.00 tea/coffee break
Chair: Professor Frank Smith (Laurentian University, Canada)
11.00 - 11.45 Professor Peter Lavskis (University of South Australia): "Mystic Freedom Against Order in Huxley"
11.45 - 12.30 Michel Geday (General Manager, Sheraton Towers, Singapore): "Hotel Management in Tomorrow's Utopia"
Section B
9.00 - 11.00 see Section A
Chair: Professor David Birch (Deakin University, Australia)
11.00 - 11.45 Dr. Gerhard Wagner (University of Münster): "Aldous Huxley as Anthologist: Texts and Pretexts and The Perennial Philosophy "
11.45 - 12.30
12.30 - 14.00 lunch break
Section A
Chair: Professor John Williams (Singapore Management University)
14.00 - 14.45 Professor David Birch (Deakin University, Australia): "The Media and the Question of Transparency"
14.45 - 15.30 Michael Scholten, M.A. (Hamburg): "Aldous Huxley's Predictions about the Future of Cinema and Television: Facts and Fiction"
Section B
Chair: Professor Walter Schwager (Laurentian University, Canada)
14.00 - 14.45 Dr. Claudia Olk (University of Münster): "Aldous Huxley as Screenwriter: Jacob's Hands "
14.45 - 15.30 Agatha Schwager (Toronto, Canada): "Huxley and the Barriers to Creativity"
15.30 - 16.00 tea/coffee break
Sections A/B
Chair: Professor Kulwant Gill (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana)
16.00 - 16.45 Professor Walter Schwager (Laurentian University, Canada): "Aldous Huxley and the Cross-Cultural Learning Experience"
16.45 - 17.30 Professor Donald Watt (State University of New York at Geneseo): "A Modest Proposal: Brave New World as Contemporary Film" (read by Professor Bernfried Nugel)31 December 2000
Section A
Chair: Professor Jerome Meckier (University of Kentucky)
9.00 - 10.00 Keynote Address: Professor Peter Firchow (University of Minnesota): "Brave at Last: Huxley's Western & Eastern Utopias"
10.00 - 10.45 Professor Bernfried Nugel (University of Münster): "Aldous Huxley's Concept of 'Human Potentialities'"
10.45 - 11.15 tea/coffee break
Chair: Professor Peter Lavskis (University of South Australia)
11.15 - 12.00 Professor Kulwant Gill (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana): "Nirvana for Agnostics: Aldous Huxley and the Asian Context"
12.00 - 12.45 Professor Ismail Talib (National University of Singapore): "Aldous Huxley and Language"
Section B
9.00 - 11.15 see Section A
Chair: Professor George Watt (Nagoya University, Japan)
11.15 - 12.00 Christian Berkemeier (University of Paderborn): "Dystopia on Video: American (P)Reviews of Huxley's Brave New World "
12.00 - 12.45 Dr. James Hull (Zürich): "The Initiate: An Interpretation of the Final Chapter of Island " (read by Robin Hull)
12.45 - 14.00 lunch break
Section A
Chair: Professor Ismail Talib (National University of Singapore)
14.00 - 14.45 Professor A.A. Mutalik-Desai (Dharwad, India): "Utopias: Berdiaeff's Caveat"
14.45 - 15.30 Peter Widmer (University of Basle): "Exploring Drugs and Mysticism: Huxley's Approach in the Light of Current Research"
Section B
Chair: Professor Rajeev Patke (National University of Singapore)
14.00 - 14.45 Professor A. Kumar Tripathy (Banaras Hindu University): "Huxley, Nirad Choudhari and Shri Aurobindo in the Context of the New Millennium"
14.45 - 15.30 Jennifer Mannall (Australian International School, Singapore): "Educating Towards Bardo: Conquering the New Paradigm Through Scenario-Based Education - the SIA Model"
15.30 - 16.00 tea/coffee break
Section A
Chair: Professor Robert Yeo (Singapore)
16.00 - 16.45 Professor Rajeev Patke (National University, Singapore): "Huxley's Utopias and the Challenges of Post-Modernism"
16.45 - 17.30 Professor Peter Reeves (National University, Singapore): "Huxley in Asia: A Historian's Perspective"
Section B
Chair: Dr. Ronald Ng (Singapore)
16.00 - 16.45 Professor Ian Ross (University of British Columbia, Canada): Towards the Perennial Philosophy: A Meditation on Huxley's Essay 'Beliefs' (1937)"
16.45 - 17.30 Professor Matej Muzina (University of Zagreb): "Aldous Huxley: 'An Agnostic Who Wanted to Become a Gnostic', or, Scepticism vs Hope"
Sections A/B
Chair: Professor Ian Ross (University of British Columbia, Canada)
18.00 - 18.45 Professor John Williams (Singapore Management University): "Aldous Huxley and George Orwell: Making Dissent Unthinkable"
18.45 - 19.30 Keynote Address: Professor Kirpal Singh (Singapore Management University): "Challenging Norms: Aldous Huxley and Education in the Third Millennium"
1 January 2001: The Third Millennium
16.00 - 18.00 Panel: "Young Huxley Scholars and Their Brave New Worlds"
Chair: Dr. Claudia Olk (University of Münster)
Gabriel Ernesto Abad (University of Málaga), "From 'Carpe Diem' to the Eternal Present: Time in the Novels of Aldous Huxley"
Jutta Ackermann (University of Münster), "Structural Analogies with Music in Aldous Huxley's Early Novels"
Janko Andrijasevic, M.A. (University of Montenegro), "Huxley's Apocalypse: Ape and Essence"
Cathy Cupitt (Curtin University, Australia), "Space Opera's Relationship to Science Fiction: A Case Study"
Anja Wiesner, M.A. (University of Münster), "Themes and Their Literary Representation in Aldous Huxley's Travel Essays"
Articles on the Conference in the StraitsTimes (8 January, 2001: "Life!", pp. 6-7)
Further Activities at the University of Münster,
Germany, Dept. of English:
6 November 2001
9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m. (room H19, Dept. of English):
Prof. Pierre Vitoux: "Aldous Huxley and Poetry" (with discussion)
10 June 2002
Dr. David Bradshaw (Worcester College, Oxford): "The Name and Nature of Huxley's Satire in the 1920s" (workshop)
4:15 p.m.-5:45 p.m. (Centre for Aldous Huxley Studies, Room 107, Dept. of English)
11 June 2002
Dr. David Bradshaw (Worcester College, Oxford): "Huxley in India 1925-6" (lecture with discussion)
9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m. (Room H19, Dept. of English)
7 November 2002
Prof. Peter Firchow (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis): "Nancy (Myra, Lucy); Carrington (Mary, Anne); and Aldous (Theodore, Walter): Fact and Fiction" (lecture with discussion)
9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m. (Room H 19, Dept. of English)
25 - 29 July 2004
Third International Aldous Huxley Symposium: "Aldous Huxley, Man of Letters: Thinker, Critic and Artist"
Riga, University of Latvia
Download the detailed programme (pdf) here.
19 October 2004
Prof. David Dunaway (University of New Mexico): "Broadcasting Huxley: A Case Study in Scholarly Communication" (lecture with discussion)
9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m. (Room H 19, Dept. of English)
4 November 2004
Prof. Jean-Louis Cupers (Facultés Unversitaires Saint-Louis, Bruxelles): "Huxley's Passacaglia: On the Margin of Aldous Huxley's Musico-Literary Venture" (lecture with discussion)
9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m. (Room R 236, Dept. of Philosophy, Domplatz 23)
Prof. Jean-Louis Cupers (Facultés Unversitaires Saint-Louis, Bruxelles): "Reading Huxley's Short Stories: The Sound Behind the Orthography" (workshop)
14:15 a.m.-15:45 a.m. (Studiobühne, Domplatz 23)
15 November 2005
Poetry Reading: An Evening with Singaporean Writer Kirpal Singh
8.00 p.m. (Room R 031, Dept. of English)
16 November 2005
Prof. Kirpal Singh (Singapore Management University): "Poetry and Politics: Going Beyond Niceties and the Problems of Post-Colonial Honesty"
4.00 p.m. (Room R 031, Dept. of English)
18 November 2005
Prof. Bernfried Nugel, Chairman of the Huxley Society and Director of the CAHS, celebrated his 65th birthday this September and has now retired as a teacher from the Department of English at the University of Münster
Volume 7 of the Society's series "Human Potentialities" has been dedicated to Bernfried Nugel on this occasion: Hermann J. Real, Peter E. Firchow (eds): The Perennial Satirist. Essays in Honour of Bernfried Nugel, Münster, 2005.
